Answer the Phone
by Cerasi J
Summary: “But Abby, I have to talk to him… I need to know that he wants this, too.” TATE... One Shot... AU... Fluff


**Title:** Answer the Phone  
**Author:** Cerasi J.   
**Rating:** PG  
**Pairing:** Tate/McAbby  
**Spoilers:** _SWAK, Twilight, Bete Noire, Reville, Dead Man Walking_   
**Summary:** "But Abby, I have to talk to him… I need to; I just have to know that he wants this, too."  
**Disclaimer:** If I had a nickel every time I said I don't own NCIS, I'd be rich enough to buy it anyway! But since I don't get nickels for writing disclaimers… (sigh)… Also, in my happy, little world "Twilight" never took place, therefore Kate is not dead, and this fic could actually happen! Hurray!

---

Kate paced the tiny room, her high heels clicking on the wooden floor. She was suddenly feeling very claustrophobic. Her breathing was starting to get heavy and she felt like she was about to hurl all over the handmade dress she was wearing. "Kate? You okay?" Agent Todd looked up at her best friend Abby Sciuto and gave a very brief, very tight nod.

"You don't look okay," Abby continued as she brushed out her hair, "you look like you're about to lose it." Finished with her quick-primp, Abby stowed her hair brush back inside her Kate Spade purse. Kate wrung her hands and for one, fleeting moment she allowed herself to dive headfirst into that bottomless well of nervousness and fear.

"Oh my God, Abby," her hands had started to tremble, "What if-… what if he's right across that hall, thinking, 'Why am I doing this? What am I getting into?'" Abby rolled her eyes, "Of course he's thinking that, all men think that at this point in their lives."

This did not help to ease Kate's mental suffering, however. "Abbbbyyyy! I don't need to hear that right now!" The raven-haired lab tech just laughed, "You shouldn't have asked me, then." Kate resumed her pacing, her mind going a million miles a minute.

Finally, she whirled toward the door, "That's it, I'm going over there!" Abby sprang up and caught the back of Kate's dress, "Oh no, you don't! It's bad luck!" Kate squirmed to get free, "I don't believe in luck!" Abby just held on tighter, "Yes, you do, otherwise, you wouldn't be here right now!" The shorter of the two women stopped in her tracks, her head dropped to her chest.

Abby was correct, if it hadn't been for blind, dumb luck, Kate would have been as dead as Disco on a roof top somewhere, a terrorist's bullet in her skull. "Yeah, you're right," she said quietly, "But Abby, I have to talk to him… I need to; I just have to know that he wants this, too." Tears filled her eyes and she did the best to blink them away. One crystal droplet escaped and coursed down her cheek.

"Hey, now!" Abby protested, hugging her friend, "None of that! You'll mess up your make up!" Kate sighed and hugged Abby back. "I have to talk to him," she repeated, firmly. Abby pulled back from the friendly, comforting embrace to narrow her eyes at the stubborn agent.

Kate narrowed her eyes right back. Not wanting to dump on the most important day of her friend's life, Abby sighed and said, "Its bad luck if you go over there." Kate bit back her reply, not wanting to temp fate anymore than she had to. "But," Abby said with a grin as she pulled her cell phone out of her purse, "no one ever said anything about _calling_."

Kate's beautiful face lit up with a dazzling smile. "Abby, you're a goddess." The Goth smirked as she slipped the cell phone into her friend's hand, "I try." Abby turned and let herself out the door as Kate frantically dialed numbers. Once outside, she was greeted by a stony faced Gibbs and an almost panicked Ducky.

Ducky looked concerned, "What was the noise we heard?" As Gibbs asked at the same time, "Is everything alright?" Abby slipped her arms around both her men's shoulders and gently guided them away from the door. "Chill guys," she said, laughing, "She just has the jitters."

---

Anthony DiNozzo and Timothy McGee were struggling with their cufflinks. "Who the hell invented these?" Tony fumed, "I should hunt him down and kill him…" his mumbling tapered off as he put his sleeve back in his mouth to try to button it back together. McGee was mumbling something about tuxedos being evil.

Tony finally slipped one button through the hole and cried out triumphantly, "Look McGee, I got it!" McGee paid no attention to Tony, as he was busy with his own wrists. Both men had agreed not to help each other with the cufflinks. It was just too weird, helping your co-workers dress. Even if it was for their own wedding.

Tony had started on the second button and McGee was letting out frustrated Al Gore sounds when the cell phone on a small dressing table started ringing. Tony and Tim shared a dumbfounded look as the phone continued to play Beethoven's Ninth Symphony.

"Who would be calling right now?" McGee demanded, "The ceremony is supposed to start in twenty minutes!" When McGee had taken his jacket sleeve out of his mouth, the button slipped out of its hole once again. He let out a frustrated yell and stalked out of the room, calling, and "Abby? Abby! C'mere, I need your help!"

Tony strode forward and quickly shut the door that his partner had left wide open, but not before hollering, "Were you born in a barn, McGee!" He turned and snatched up noisy device, "DiNozzo," he snapped. A tiny voice greeted him on the other end, a voice he'd grown to love. "Hi, honey." Tony was slightly confused, "Kate? What's the matter?" He cradled the phone between his neck and shoulder and attacked his cufflinks once again.

In the room across the hall, Kate Todd — soon to be Kate DiNozzo — was sitting in a flowery, overstuffed chair in the small room of the Lady of our Lord Catholic church in Alexandra, Virginia. She had slipped off her shoes, her feet drawn up underneath her, the cream colored wedding gown piled around all around her small frame. Kate sighed, "I just… wanted to talk." Confused, Tony glanced at his watch, and echoed the Probie's words from just a few moments ago. "But, the ceremony is supposed to start in twenty minutes."

"I know… I just need to talk to you."  
"Why didn't you just come see me?"  
"Abby said it was bad luck for the bride to see the groom before the wedding."  
"We'll be seeing each other in twenty minutes!" Kate fell silent.  
"Katie?"

"Tony, do you want to do this?" Tony stopped playing with his sleeve, every ounce of his attention now focused on the voice on his cell phone. His heart stopped beating and his blood ran cold. _Oh my God, is she having second thoughts about marrying me?_

He stopped to gather his thoughts for a moment before he replied, "Kate, of _course_ I want to do this; if I didn't, I wouldn't be here, in this monkey suit, fighting with these stupid cufflinks…" He paused, hoping his bit of attempted humor would settle in and ease her mind. Kate, however, was still very quiet on the other end of the line.

"Kate?" She coughed and he heard a sniffle. Guilt tore through him and knifed his insides. "Kate, sweetie? Please say something!" Every second she was silent felt like an eternity to him. Finally, she spoke.

"Tony… if you are having second thoughts … about us, you know? I want to you tell me _right now_. We don't have to go out there and face all those people only to have it end in something horrible, if you don't want to do this. Just tell me and we can both walk away." She sniffled again.

His breath hitched in his throat and he suddenly sounded very testy, "Is that what you think, Kate? You think I could _just walk away_ from you? If I could just _walk away_ I would have never asked you out after Ari nearly killed you. If I could just _walk away_ I wouldn't have laid in bed every night after I opened that envelope, realizing just how short life really is. If I had walked away from you after all of that… after everything that's happened to me, to you, _to us_… then I would be a completely heartless bastard." Kate let out sigh and said on a scandalized breath, "Tony! Watch your language! We're in a church!"

"Sorry. But, Kate, I love you. I've loved you since the moment I met you and I don't think I could ever stop. You're my whole world. When Ari… and I thought you were…" Tears unexpectedly clouded his vision, "When you were kidnapped, I thought I had lost you forever. You have no idea how that felt." She listened quietly, her heart beating rapidly, her internal voices calming after hearing his voice.

She couldn't help herself from asking, "How did it feel?" Kate held the phone closer to her ear, as she got up and crossed the room. She rested her forehead next to a framed picture of the Virgin Mary. In the room across the hall, Tony paced a tight circle for a second as he furiously brushed the wetness away from his cheeks.

He came to a stop at the far wall, where he too rested his forehead against it. He sighed. "I felt like someone had ripped out my heart and stomped on it. It someone had taken a red-hot poker and shoved it up my nose, it would have been a welcome relief from the pain I felt." Kate cringed, "_Ew_, Tony! Graphic much?" Tony smiled, that was his Kate. "I love you, Caitlin," He said, still smiling. She groaned, "Tony, please! You know I hate that. Only my mother calls me Caitlin."

"Well in," he glanced at his watch, "five minutes, I'll be your lawfully wedded husband, which means that gives me permission to use your full name." He could almost see the fire sparking in Kate's eyes. "Oh yeah?" She challenged. "Yeah," he replied, pushing himself away from the wall. "Well, then, _Anthony_. Maybe I should take your Mama aside today and tell her how you kissed a he/she that one time."

"Aww! Kate!" He spouted something in Italian, which, she guessed were most likely swear words. "Please, no!" Before she could threaten him anymore, pounding resounded on both doors. "C'mon, you two!" Gibbs yelled, "Or do we have you drag you out!" Both well trained agents quickly hung up their phones when they heard the boss man practically beating down the doors.

---

Five minutes later, Tony was in his position at the front of the church, with McGee and Ducky standing faithfully beside him. Abby was situated across from Tim, and Tony watched with some amusement as the two made faces at each other. Organ music started piping through the cathedral and everyone turned to watch the front doors.

Kate emerged, holding tightly to Gibbs' arm. Gibbs was smiling for once and was murmuring something to her. Pre-wedding advice, perhaps. _Or,_ Tony thought with a cheeky grin, _post-wedding advice._ Gibbs had, after all, been married three times.

Tony's face lit up in a blinding grin as he watched his fiancée make her way gracefully down the aisle. Her ivory colored halter-top styled dress brushed the floor; you could barely see the shoes she'd spent nearly three days picking out. Her silky mahogany hair was piled fashionably on top of her head, and little, curled ringlets brushed the back of her neck and bare shoulders.

Her lips were rose red, her make up professionally applied. As she walked down the corridor time stood still, and Tony wanted nothing more than to bolt down the walkway, sweep her into his arms and kiss her until her cheeks flushed that delicate shade of pink.

God, how he loved her. Gibbs and Kate stepped up to the alter, and his boss properly handed her off to her waiting future husband. He leaned in low, close to Tony's ear and hissed, "Take good care of her, or I swear to God, I'll make you wish you'd never been born."

This elected a giggle from McGee, who, upon inspection, had finally gotten his cufflink problem under control. Gibbs tried to glare at Probie, but he couldn't help the good humor dancing in the depth of his icy blue eyes. "I will, boss." Tony promised as Kate slipped her small hand in his.

Gibbs quickly moved off and went to his seat next to Kate's widowed mother. The priest smiled, opened the Good Book and started with those words every woman wants to hear someday, "Dearly beloved…" Kate stared up into Tony's starling hazel eyes and mouthed to him, "I love you, too, Anthony." As a parting shot from their earlier conversation. She winked at him. He rolled his eyes and held her hand tighter.

He stared back at her, thinking he couldn't wait to start his new life with Caitlin Todd DiNozzo at his side.

The End.

**A/N:** Well, Ladies and Gents, I hope you liked my first NCIS fic. I like all kinds of reviews, just make your criticism constructive, reviews that proclaim stuff sucks for no reason is no help to the author whatsoever! I welcome your comments! ) Thanks for reading! ;;


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